Need advice please

[Beaux]

Again hope this is not in the wrong forum. I'm looking for recommendations on soft corals. I am new to reefing  so they say softies are best for beginners. I am looking for something that is hardy with lots of movement. There are some that I have seen but they are "for sale" corals and no descriptions. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Robb in Austin]

Hammer or anchor coral (Euphyllia sp.) are some of the  best bang for the buck corals IMO. They are not softies though. They are LPS but tend to be fairly hardy and easy to care for. Just give em light and decent water and they will thrive.

Typical softies are boring to me or too invasive; I'm talking GSP, Xenia, Anthelia when I mean invasive.

Ricordea are nice beginner corals and come in lots of colors. But they don't move much.

[Beaux]

Thanks Robb, I am just not sure is I am ready for that leap yet. LPS is the hard corals? That would involve calcium, and or other "feeding"? I have only had this tank going for less than a year now. I am just unsure I have the expierance for that yet. Thanks for the info, I will check out the ones you mentioned. 

[Timfish]

Beaux,  while many people think the colloqial terms "softie", "LPS" and "SPS" dictates the enivironmental requirements of the animal and they may be convenient terms to use instead of Acropora, Montipora, Sinuilaria, Ricordia, Nepthia, Klyxum, Cladelia, Favia, Fungia, nothing could be farther from the truth.  The frogspwan Robb mentioned for example does better in low light situations than many polyps, soft or leather corals.  Pink birdsnest, a so called "SPS" can do well along side Ricordia polyps and sinularia or lobophytum.  Also some soft corals like Sinularia species depending on the size of the colony may create as heavy or heavier demand for calcium than stoney corals as they make lots of calcium crystals inside the body of the colony.  You can maintain a wide range of animals with very simple systems, see my skimmerless thread in the Tank Builds forum.  I do not use lots of equipment that complicates plumbing, electronics and maintenenace ornormally dose anything but just monitor alkalinity and pH salinity weekly and calcium magnesium and phosphate periodicly.  For water changes I prefer to do just small weekly water changes that only take a few minutes to perform.   I would encourage you to get a copy of Forest Rohwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas".  The old ideas of just tightly controlling inorganic phosphate (PO4) and inorganic nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate) are just small parts of the picture for maintianing corals in captivity and Rohwer's book is an very readable and informative introduction to the complex and sometimes antagonisitc relationships corals, alage and microbes have. 

[Beaux]

Thanks for the informative feedback. Going out to look for that book now. Thanks again.

[Paula]

I would encourage you to get a copy of Forest Rohwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas". 

Wow, that looks like a really great book! I just ordered a copy!

Paula

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[Robb in Austin]

In general, Tim and I have very similar theories on reef keeping. While his approach is more methodical and scientifically based, mine is more pragmatic. Small frequent water changes matter more than trying to hit some magical number or what they "experts" advise.

That said, I haven't done a WC in 6 months and I have more RTBAs than I can shake a stick at, my ricordea split as much as my RBTA do, and my fish are happier than pigs in poop. Granted, its 215g. But stability>magical numbers.

Throw some LPS in there and see what happens. I DO advise you do frequent WC though given your system size. IMO, anything less than 50-75g needs it.

[mFrame]

Starter "corals" I would recommend for someone who wants to learn and grow without a ton of stress:

• mushrooms 
• bubble coral
• leathers (devil's Hand, toadstools, sinularia, colt coral )
• feather dusters (or micro feathers)
• anemones (bubbletip, condylactis)
• common zoanthids and palys

I'll be bringing some of these as giveaways at our meeting this Saturday. (

)

[Beaux]

Thanks MFrame those sound great. I have some of what you listed already and they are wonderful. I wish I had something to contribute as well but I doubt I would have anything anyone would want lol. 

[mFrame]

22 hours ago, Beaux Simms said:

Thanks MFrame those sound great. I have some of what you listed already and they are wonderful. I wish I had something to contribute as well but I doubt I would have anything anyone would want lol. 

We all have to get our start somewhere.

Edited your post about the clownfish ID as you already have a thread going for it.

Look forward to meeting you Saturday.

[Jimbo662]

I've got a superman rhodactis mushroom that somehow moved to it's own little rock I'll sell you at a good price.    PM me if you're interested.

[Timfish]

On 11/4/2017 at 3:47 PM, Beaux said:

Thanks for the informative feedback. Going out to look for that book now. Thanks again.

 

On 11/4/2017 at 6:25 PM, Paula said:

Wow, that looks like a really great book! I just ordered a copy!
 

 

Beaux, was talking with Paula Saturday and beside Rohwer's book we also touched on de Goeij's thesis work on sponges.  I told her I would post the link and I thought you might be interested also:  http://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14555035/13completethesis.pdf

 

 

[Paula]

Beaux, was talking with Paula Saturday and beside Rohwer's book we also touched on de Goeij's thesis work on sponges.  I told her I would post the link and I thought you might be interested also:  http://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14555035/13completethesis.pdf  

 

 

Wowza! Thanks. I look forward to looking at it. I also just ordered a copy of Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman.  

Aquarium Corals : Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History https://www.amazon.com/dp/1890087475/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_R.KcAb9SN51VT

 

 

 

Paula

 

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[Paula]

I would encourage you to get a copy of Forest Rohwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas".  The old ideas of just tightly controlling inorganic phosphate (PO4) and inorganic nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate) are just small parts of the picture for maintianing corals in captivity and Rohwer's book is an very readable and informative introduction to the complex and sometimes antagonisitc relationships corals, alage and microbes have. 

Not sure if you've seen this. Just found it on YouTube.

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[Timfish]

On 11/18/2017 at 3:18 AM, Paula said:

Not sure if you've seen this. Just found it on YouTube. . .

No I haven't, great video!  Thank You!  This follows his book "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" fairly closely.  Some the info Rohwer presented here has also been in some of the videos his lab has done under the Youtube account name "Marinephage", a lot of thier videos are on other subjects and are pretty interesting.     

[Paula]

2 minutes ago, Timfish said:

No I haven't, great video!  Thank You!  This follows his book "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" fairly closely.  Some the info Rohwer presented here has also been in some of the videos his lab has done under the Youtube account name "Marinephage", a lot of thier videos are on other subjects and are pretty interesting.     

I've been branching out from some of the people Rohwer mentions in his book. For instance he credits Nancy Knowlton for getting him started as he became interested in corals and helped him in his research. This is a pretty good two part series. I think it'd be of interest to anybody interested in reef keeping.

Corals and Coral Reefs: Past Present and Future (Part 1)

I haven't watched part 2 yet.

[Timfish]

On 11/13/2017 at 8:11 PM, Paula said:

. . . I also just ordered a copy of Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman.  

Aquarium Corals : Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History https://www.amazon.com/dp/1890087475/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_R.KcAb9SN51VT

That's a good book too!  There is an important typo on pg 349.  The maximum nitrate level for wild reefs should be 3.34 ppm, not 3034 ppm.  Borneman wrote a good handbook that gave parameters for some corals by species.  He and Sprung are the only two I know of who tried to point out we need to look at the environmental needs of individual species and not use the colloquial terms "SPS" or "LPS" so often used to denote husbandry requirements.

 

17 minutes ago, Paula said:

I've been branching out from some of the people Rohwer mentions in his book. For instance he credits Nancy Knowlton for getting him started as he became interested in corals and helped him in his research. This is a pretty good two part series. I think it'd be of interest to anybody interested in reef keeping.

Corals and Coral Reefs: Past Present and Future (Part 1)

I haven't watched part 2 yet.

After you've finished part 2 here's another one on microbes http://changingseas.tv/episode402.html     I don't know how far you've chased Rohwer's references yet but another researcher is Andreas Haas.